Taiwan has some “hidden treasures” waiting to be discovered, says musician Matthew Lien, who is on a mission to bring them into the spotlight. But this time, Lien, who is widely known in Taiwan as the “eco-musician” and environmental activist from Canada, is not talking about wilderness, but something even closer to home for him: music.
Among these “treasures” is the Hakka music that Lien explores on his latest album, Adventures in the Hakka Heartland (旅客), which was released earlier this month. The album is associated with the television series Ha-Fun Taiwan, which Lien conceived and co-hosted with Hakka singer-songwriter Hsieh Yu-wei (謝宇威).
In each episode of the series, Lien and Hsieh travel to predominantly Hakka areas around Taiwan, from the foothills of Ilan County in the north to Meinung (美濃) in the south. They meet local folk musicians who talk about their lives and perform in their daily surroundings. The musicians featured in the show, and who contribute to the album, performed a variety of Hakka music forms, including mountain songs (山歌), an improvisational singing style, and bayin (八音), a ceremonial instrumental music often played at social events.
It is these “musical heroes who perform for the love of culture” that inspired the project, Lien writes in the liner notes to the album. Lien and his co-producers deliberately chose to spotlight lesser-known musicians.
“I thought it would be interesting and beneficial to Hakka culture at large to show that there are a ton of super cool musicians out there; but they’re not interested in being famous or trying to get on stage or into the limelight – they’re just on their chicken farm or wherever playing their music,” he said in a recent interview with the Taipei Times.
Lien took the field recordings, all made during 2007, and added his own music at his Taipei studio. He drew from a range of instruments including synthesizers, drums, flutes, and guitars to create the backing tracks. The results were featured at the end of each episode as a music video, with footage recapping Lien and Hsieh’s time with the featured musician.
In Ba-yin Blues, Lien takes Lin Zuo-chang’s (林作長) rendition of a traditional Hakka tune on the suona (嗩吶), a trumpet-like instrument, and gives it a modern electric blues sound: think BB King’s backing band with a suona as the main voice.
Lien’s instrumentation changes the mood of the tune in a way that traditional music purists might call blasphemous. And Lin, a chicken farmer from Meinung, was not initially convinced of Lien’s idea of adding a blues-sounding backing track to his performance.
“I think he was doubtful and kind of ‘humored’ by the idea,” said Lien. “But nevertheless he gave me a bottle of kaoliang and signed his name on it with the date and gave it to me and said if I succeed, (I should) bring it back and we would drink it together.”
And drink they did. Lien and the TV crew returned to finish taping Lin’s segment of the show, and played the new recording with Lien’s backing instrumentation. Lin’s face “just lit up with this big smile,” Lien said.
While Lien’s distinct musical footprint may come across as a bit heavy for some, he says his purpose is to show that Hakka music can hold its own, even in a pop context. “I felt I could capture the essence of [their music] and lift it up to a new level to make people pay attention,” he said.
Even with the elaborate production, the core performances remain “genuine,” says Lien, who says he made a conscious effort to record the musicians in “their area of comfort,” often at their homes, in the fields, or at local temples.
Lien is proud of the result, and hopes the album will encourage Taiwanese listeners to explore music beyond corporate pop. “What I hope is that the CD will attract different people’s attention … in a way that will lead them back to appreciating and rediscovering Taiwan’s traditional music for what it is, without new clothes … go find the stuff because it’s out there,” he said.
Lien’s album is available through Wind Music (www.windmusic.com.tw). Ha-Fun Taiwan currently airs on Hakka TV at 10pm on Thursdays and 12am Sunday. Clips from the show can be viewed on YouTube. Lien’s next performance is this Friday at Da-an Forest Park (大安森林公園) in Taipei at 7pm; admission is free.
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
The sprawling port city of Kaohsiung seldom wins plaudits for its beauty or architectural history. That said, like any other metropolis of its size, it does have a number of strange or striking buildings. This article describes a few such curiosities, all but one of which I stumbled across by accident. BOMBPROOF HANGARS Just north of Kaohsiung International Airport, hidden among houses and small apartment buildings that look as though they were built between 15 and 30 years ago, are two mysterious bunker-like structures that date from the airport’s establishment as a Japanese base during World War II. Each is just about
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
The female body is a horror movie waiting to happen. From puberty and the grisly onset of menstruation, in pictures such as Brian De Palma’s Carrie and John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, to pregnancy and childbirth — Rosemary’s Baby is the obvious example — women have provided a rich seam of inspiration for genre film-makers over the past half century. But look a little closer and two trends become apparent: the vast majority of female body-based horror deals with various aspects of the reproductive system, and it has largely been made by men (Titane and The First Omen, two recent examples
RSS